September 10, 2008

September 11: May Their Love Give Us Love

Robert Spencer/AP

Before last year’s sixth anniversary of 9/11, The New York Times published an article in which many wondered if it was time to put 9/11 behind us. As one psychologist said, “Our society has a very low tolerance for grief—it’s exhausting and unrelenting, and we don't want to hear about it.”

But a focus on the tragedy and grief ignores what should be the central takeaway of 9/11. Because to me, the enduring memory from 9/11 is about love.

On 9/11, we were humbled to learn that a good number of remarkable people are willing to put their lives at grave risk so that others, unknown to them, may live. There is no greater love. And many of the victims at the WTC and on Flight 93 lived for a desperate hour or more after their fate was sealed, with access to phones, and used the last precious minutes of their lives to call family and friends to express their love.

As I thought a few weeks ago about how our company should commemorate 9/11, I recalled the memorable words of firefighter Mike Moran at the Concert for New York in October 2001. Moran paid tribute to his brother and the dozens of other colleagues, loved ones and neighbors he had lost. And in his most noteworthy line, he said, “They are not gone, because they are not forgotten.” And surely we can spare an hour or two to remember the love we witnessed on and after 9/11, so that those who were lost are not gone, are not forgotten?

And then last weekend I experienced the joy of Ronan Tynan in concert, singing with a children's choir. Tynan makes every song sound as though you are hearing it for the first time. As they sang Bruce Springsteen's "Into the Fire," from the album "The Rising," I realized for the first time that Springsteen also beseeches us to remember the love of the heroes of September 11, and their strength, faith, and hope as well, so that we may draw from it:

May your strength give us strength May your faith give us faith May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love

May your strength give us strength May your faith give us faith May your hope give us hope May your love give us love May your love give us love

So our company policy is set. From 8:46 a.m. until 10:29 a.m. EST, our employees will stop work and think about the remarkable manner in which so many people responded seven years ago to the challenge of their lives, or the certain end of their lives, and recall a time when all of New York, and much of the world, recognized our common humanity.